Reflection on John 4:5-42

 

The woman left her water jar, ran, and told the people of her city, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”  

This is amazing to me.  She was excited that this man that she encountered, Jesus, knew everything that she had ever done.  Now I am pretty sure that I would not be excited if a stranger walked up to me on the street and said, “I know everything you have done.”  Number one, do I need to have my home searched for hidden cameras?  Number two, I am pretty certain that I do not want anyone to know “everything” that I have done. 

When my grandma died, I was sad, of course, but I was also scared to death because now Grandma Helen could look down from heaven and see everything that I was doing.  And, there is no way that anyone would want Grandma Helen to see everything that they were doing. 

But, this woman was excited!  She said, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 

Not only did Jesus know everything about her life, but we can see right here that she was letting other people in on her story too, so that they might come and see this guy Jesus, the Messiah.  And, that is amazing to me.  She opens up her own personal story like a book so that others can see Jesus.  That is so good.  I will tell you more about that in a moment, but that was not the first thing that struck me as amazing in this story.

The first thing that struck me as I studied this story of the “woman at the well” in preparation for this sermon was its very opening lines. 

This is how it reads: “[Jesus] came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.” 

This well is still there by the way.  You can go and visit it this day.  You can sit down right next to this well, just like Jesus.  And, if you sit down in enough places around the well, you are then allowed to tell the world that your back end sat in the very spot that Jesus’ back end sat.  Granted, you will look weird sitting down and getting up again 16 times all around this well, but the bragging rights will make it all worth it! 

And, as you sit where Jesus sat, and lean your shoulder and head against the cold sides of the well, and feel the coolness on your forehead during a hot and humid Middle Eastern day, it will suddenly strike you that Jesus was hot and exhausted, and that he needed to cool down.  And, then it will sink in that Jesus needed to cool off and rest, just like us.  And, then it will sink in that Jesus actually took the time to sit, cool off, and rest.  The savior of the world, the eternal Word of God that spoke the world into being, God, walking around in the flesh on this earth, felt the heat, felt exhausted from his journey, and then took the time to rest.  And, as you rest, as the coolness of the well calms your tired body and tired soul, a deep truth finally sinks in: rest is a part of who God is.  It is OK for you to need rest.  Actually, resting is a part of being holy.  And, that freedom to rest, given by God, feels amazing.

But, there is more amazement to be had in this story.  We are just getting started.  A Samaritan woman, an enemy of the Jews (and Jews an enemy of Samaritans) happens to show up with her large, ceramic jars to draw water from the well.  It is noon.  It is hot.  It is not the time that women typically come to draw water.  Usually they come in the morning or in the evening, when it is cool.  I wonder if there is a hidden, shameful reason why she chooses to draw water when no one else is around.  But, today there is someone around: Jesus, a Jew.  And, this sworn enemy talks to her.  He asks if she can give him a drink.

This is amazing to me.  It is amazing to the woman too because she responds, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”  To drive the point home, the writer comments, “(Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)”  What is amazing is that Jesus is engaging this Samaritan woman in deep conversation.  Jesus is conversing deeply with a woman.  Jesus is conversing deeply with a cultural enemy.  The men here are thinking, “So what, I just did that five minutes ago.”  But, this was a big deal back then. 

To understand, go ahead and imagine the most despised category of person of whom you can think.  What kind of person, when you see or hear of them, causes you say to yourself, “Surely God has a problem with them”?  Now picture that kind of person, and imagine that Jesus has gone out of his way, like intentionally walked in the wrong direction of where he said he was going, in order to spend a significant amount of time talking with that despised kind of person. 

That is shocking.  It is shocking for the disciples.  When they show up and see Jesus having this conversation they think to themselves, “What is he doing?  Why is he doing this?”  I imagine the writer of the gospel had to delete a couple of internal, but still inappropriate, choice words.  Not only that, the disciples walk into to this conversation late.  Imagine what would have come out of their mouths if they had heard the most shocking thing of all: Jesus asking the woman for help.  Recall that Jesus asks the woman for some water.  Jesus asks her for some help.  Jesus asks a well known, hated enemy for help.

Have you ever considered that even the worst person you can think of might still have some goodness to offer?  Are we so black and white in our thinking that we cannot even consider the possibility that our enemy might be at the same time evil, and capable of something good.  (Maybe, our enemies are 100% saint and 100% sinner as well…the same as us?) 

Maybe it is we who, for some reason, need to see our enemies as either good or bad. 

Maybe we focus so much on our enemies because we do not want to look inside and decide which one we are, good or bad?  Maybe, we cannot look inside because we are afraid of what we will find?  So, we become blind to our own lives, we close the door to our own souls, and we point a finger at our enemies.

What would happen if we asked something good from our enemies?  What if we asked for help?  What if we allowed ourselves to be vulnerable, realizing that we might be losing something if we refuse their contribution to the world?  Jesus asks the woman for water.  It is so simple, but at the same time, it is truly amazing.

Life is so messy.  People are so messy.  People with white hats and people with black hats do not exist.  Good people and bad people do not exist.  Only messy people exist.  Only lots and lots of messy people like you and me exist.  All of us are messy people who need some living water to wash through us and refresh us once again.  Jesus said to the woman:

“Everyone who drinks of this water [the water from the well] will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 

And, it is at this point in the story where things get real.  This is where that first amazing thing that I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon starts to happen.  This is where the story of her life starts to open up.  Just understand that before clean water can be put in a glass, the old, murky, dirty water needs to be seen for what it is, and poured out.

Here is the story is it comes to us right from the Bible.  Here is the part where the woman’s murky water is exposed. 

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!”

Honestly, I do not know what to make of her murky past with all of these husbands, nor do I know why she is living with a man who is not her husband.  The Bible does not tell us.  I do not know exactly where sin slithers its way through her story.  I do not know how sin stains the woman, nor do I understand how other people’s sin has created chaos and pain in her life. 

What I do understand is that Jesus knows.  He sees it all.  He understands it all.  When she is with Jesus, she is an open book.  With Jesus, she cannot hide.  With Jesus, she does not need to hide.  When Jesus looks at her murky life, rather than choosing to condemn her, he chooses to reveal himself to her.  He reveals to her a secret.  He is the great “I am.”  He is God.  And, the great “I am” is choosing her.

Allowing God to see you naked, to see you as you truly are, does something amazing.  When stripped of all of the clothes and makeup and masks and facades that you wear to cover up your true self; when stripped of all of that, Jesus finally gets to wash you clean with “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”  Like a muddy kid stripping for the garden hose, Jesus finally gets to wash you clean, putting new clothes on you, and fashioning you into the eternally God fearing and God loving person that you were created to be.

The woman left her water jar, ran, and told the people of her city, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”  

This is amazing.  The woman was excited because Jesus did know everything that she had ever done, and despite it all, Jesus still chose her to be his evangelist in Samaria.  In fact, her past, those things that she kept secret for so long, became an important part of her story with Jesus.  She told of how Jesus knew them all, and chose her anyway.

Jesus is not fearful of scarred pasts.  When Jesus is resurrected, he still has scars in his hands and feet and side.  New life in Jesus does not deny that we have scars and sordid pasts full of sin.  New life in Jesus is not a denial of your story; it is Jesus claiming your story.  It is allowing Jesus to take over that story, so that the waters of new life can flow through you.  This is what Lent is all about.  It is the time of year that we intentionally allow Jesus to see our whole life so that he can take over the story. 

Allow Jesus to see your whole life.  Allow Jesus to wash it clean.  And, allow Jesus to refresh you so that you can get up and be his child once again.

Reflection on Isaiah 43:1-3, 14-25

Like an adult child who has gone one step too far…threatening the family with violence one too many times…failing to trust in the love that was offered them in their own home for the millionth time, the Israelites were finally kicked out of their home, out of their land, and were sent to live and fend for themselves in Babylon. 

They had forgotten to trust in their heavenly parent, the head of the household: God.  They chose to live by their own rules, refusing to acknowledge the rules of their own home.  They prayed to other gods.  They set up altars and temples to other gods.  They did not love God.  On top of that, the Bible says that since they forgot to love God, they also forgot to love those whom God loves: their neighbors.  They forgot to “seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow” (Isaiah 1:17).  In other words, they did not remember the most important rules of God’s house: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).  Nor did they remember: You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18).  Because, they forgot to love their parent and forgot to love their siblings, the people of God were kicked out of their home…their land…and were sent to live in a foreign land.  Failing to love has consequences.

That reminds me of a story that Jesus once told.  Briefly, it goes something like this: there once was a son who decided that he did not need his family any longer.  So, he asked his dad for his share of his inheritance.  Asking for your inheritance when your parent is still alive, by the way, pretty much means that you wish that your parent was dead.  The father gave his son the money anyway, because he loved his son, and the son left the home to go live in a foreign land. 

The son sent himself into exile.  Sometimes we do that.  Sometimes we leave those who love us for selfish reasons, thereby kicking ourselves out of our own homes and out of our loving relationships.

You know how the story goes, the son squanders all of the money, ends up absolutely broke and hungry, and then devises this plan to get back into his father’s good graces so that he can eat and live.

But, the son did not need to devise any sort of plan at all because as he made his way back home, and before he even stepped foot on the property, his father was already running toward him, embracing him, and showering him with love. 

And, this is what God’s forgiveness is like.  It is a forgiveness that is showered on you before you even have a chance to get a word out.  It is forgiveness that is given to you because God loves you, not because you did something to deserve it.  It is an unconditional forgiveness that we read about in Isaiah, where God seeks to bring the people back home, even though they have in no way proven that they deserve it.

God says to his people in Isaiah 43:23-25:

²³You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. ²⁴You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities. ²⁵I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

Did you catch God’s unconditional forgiveness in that last line?  First God lists all of the things that the people failed to do to get back in God’s good grace, but in spite of that God says, “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”  God chooses to completely forget the people’s sins…to completely wipe their wrong doing out of God’s mind…because God wants to.  God chooses to do it because God loves them.  That is the only reason.

Sometimes, forgiveness is like that.  Sometimes, we forgive because we simply need to forgive, not because the other person deserves it, not because they have done anything to make it up to us.  Sometimes we forgive out of love, just as God does.

It is the same sort of unconditional forgiveness that we see in Jesus Christ on the cross as he died not for the sins of those who feel really, really bad, but died for the sins of the world. 

God’s love is unconditional.  God’s forgiveness is not earned.  God’s forgiveness is what saves us and transforms our lives.

Reflection on John 3:1-17

Jesus spoke with him in the middle of the night.  Jesus joined Nicodemus in the darkness, providing some understanding and some light.  Jesus loves Nicodemus enough to join him in the darkness.  Jesus loves the whole world that much.

I think about this often, how Jesus went ahead and joined Nicodemus in the darkness.  It seems obvious to me that Nicodemus chose to come to Jesus at night because he did not want to be noticed.  He did not want to be seen associating with Jesus.  Who knows what might have happened to Nicodemus had he been seen associating with such a man: loss of standing in the world; loss of notoriety; loss of privilege.  Jesus knew this of course.  Jesus knew of Nicodemus’ shame.  Yet, Jesus still chose to meet him and engage Nicodemus in conversation; revealing the mysteries of God and revealing the heart of God to him.

Think about this: Jesus could have chastised Nicodemus.  He could have called him weak of faith.  He could have refused to meet with him all together.  He could have condemned Nicodemus, sent him away, and banished him for dwelling in the darkness. 

After-all, Jesus is the light of God.  Jesus did not need to dwell in the middle of the night with dark figures who prefer to hide.  But, if Jesus never entered into the darkness, never entered into our darkness, how would any of us in this dark world be saved?  How would the Nicodemuses of the world come to know anything about the heart of God?  Jesus “did not come into the world in order to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). 

Do we get that?  Do we truly understand that?  Do we get that Jesus does not look upon our neighbors with distain; “Tisk, tisk, tisk,” dripping from his lips?  Do we get that he does not look at the shady dealings of the house next door and use his cosmic powers to make the people within disappear?  Do we get that he sat down with prostitutes, and ate with tax collectors, and healed sinful people, and had conversations with women with whom no one else was willing to speak.  “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). 

Do we get that Jesus chose to sit with people in dark places so that they might be saved?  I am not sure that I always do.  If the thoughts of my mind had the ability to eliminate the people who I deem as “unworthy” on a daily basis, this town would have a pretty sparse population.  Not only that, I wonder just how much time I have wasted, condemning people rather than…oh, I don’t know…connecting with them and connecting them to the one who can lift them out of the darkness, Jesus Christ our Lord?  “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). 

That makes me think of the quote from the late David Huskins, “If God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn it, I doubt he sent you.”

That seems a little too true for comfort. 

“If God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn it, I doubt he sent you.”  What is striking about these words is that they came from the mouth of a minister who experienced some of that condemnation himself.  The pastor struggled to care for himself properly for years.  He soaked in all of the criticisms of others which affected his health and his life.  In the end took his own life.  He struggled with the darkness of his life and hoped beyond hope that the words of scripture are true, that Jesus meets when us in dark places.  He hoped beyond hope that we are not condemned, no matter how dark the place in which we find ourselves.  “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). 

Jesus meets us in our dark places and like Nicodemus, we are offered a glimmer of light, we are offered something new.  Jesus offers us a different vision.  He offers us a different life.  He offers us a reality that is not the darkness of this world, but is the light of God.  Jesus reveals that we will get to see the kingdom of God when we are born again, or as our bibles say, “born from above” (John 3:3).

It is almost as if Jesus wants us to experience a complete change in how we see things.  It is as if we are so used to the way that things work down here in this world that we have to die and clear away everything we know so that we can be born again with a clear mind in order to see things the way that God sees them.

In fact, Jesus says that in order to live in the kingdom of God we need to be born of “water and the Spirit.”  That water of the Lord needs to drown out the old, like your own personal flood of the soul, and then the Spirit of God gets to blow new life into you once again.  It is a second birth that allows you to see and to enter into the kingdom of God.  Only then will you see things the way that God sees them. 

But, this is not just about you.  God can renew any one of us at any time that God chooses.  “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

God can renew even the most unlikely of us.  Remember how Moses, the murderer of that slave driver, was transformed into one of the greatest prophets?  Remember how Peter was transformed from a Jesus denier into a brave preacher?  Remember how Saul was transformed from a persecutor of Christians into one of the most prolific evangelizers of the faith?  The Spirit blew into them all, giving them vision from above, making them servants of God.  Remember how the Spirit blew into you, transforming your weakest moments in life into one of your greatest strengths?  God can renew even the most unlikely of us, and God does.

One of the best trauma therapists that I know was brutally traumatized herself.  I will not get into the details; you can certainly imagine the worst.  The dark world in which she lived as a child transformed her into a destructive teenager.  Her mind was consumed by the need to get back at the world.  The world was cruel, she thought.  The world was evil, she thought.  The world needed to be destroyed, she thought.  And, work to destroy it she did.  One night she set fire to her neighbor’s garbage can, and the siding on her neighbor’s back porch caught fire as well.  The old woman saw the fire in the back of her house and quickly put it out with her garden hose. 

In an inexplicable act of compassion, rather than pressing charges, the neighbor invited the girl help her put up new siding on her back porch.  Each morning started out with milk and cookies, and then the work would begin.  While they worked, the old woman asked the teen about her life.  She listened to the teen’s pain.  She hugged her when she revealed the worst over cookies and milk.  She was there for the teen’s high school graduation.  And the old woman was there when the newly educated therapist graduated from college.

It was almost as if the old woman had been born from above.  It was almost as if the old woman knew a couple of holy truths, that God loves “the world,” even the dark parts of the world, and that Jesus has no intention of “condemning” the world.  Rather Jesus desires to save it.  The old woman herself had once been born out of the cleansing waters of God and filled with the breath of the Holy Spirit.  Because she had been born from above and understood God’s vision for the world, the therapist was also given a chance to be born anew.

The therapist now lives a new life, so different than the dark one she had inhabited before as a youth.  Now, she looks upon the world with love, not hate.  Now, she sees the darkness within people as something that needs to be healed, not condemned.  Now, she looks to Jesus to provide that healing and eternal life, just as the Israelites looked to the snake for healing and forgiveness in the wilderness.  She trusts in Jesus, who refuses to condemn, because his life and death is all about salvation.  She looks upon the world with love, because Jesus looked upon her with love and sent her neighbor at the right time.  She refuses to condemn, because that is not what seeing with the eyes of Jesus and living in his kingdom is actually about.  The Spirit continues to breathe new life into her through the words of scripture that she memorized soon after having her life turned around by Jesus.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

She also memorized this phrase, because she thought it was just as important as the first:

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).

Jesus spoke to her in the middle of the night, in the middle of her darkness, and she had been saved. 

Jesus breathes new life into you also.  Jesus is there in your darkness also.  Allow your darkness to be drowned, and be ready for all that the Spirit has in store as Jesus fills you with new breath and new life.

Sermon for Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-19

During the Wednesday nights in Lent this year, we are going to explore “forgiveness.”  We will explore God’s forgiveness.  We will explore the forgiveness that Christ promises to his people and to the world.  And, we will explore our participation in forgiveness, our joining in this holy task by forgiving others.

So, it seems wise to begin with the first instance of forgiveness in the Bible to get our grounding.  We find that all the way at the beginning of the Bible, in the Garden of Eden.  Now, you might question why I chose this story of Adam and Eve’s failure in the garden as the starting point for forgiveness.  After-all, the story is filled with lots and lots of punishments.  

After the man and the woman eat of the fruit that they were told that they should not, God confronts Adam and Eve.  In a windy rage, like a parent storming into the playroom, into the scene of the crime, and swiftly delivering time-outs to the children, the snake receives a cursed life of existing in the dust; the woman from then on will have strife in her marital relationships and pain when trying to bring about and raise children; and the man from then on will struggle in making the earth produce any food.  Hand work and weeds will be his life.  In fact, almost a whole third of the story is about the consequences of not trusting in the Lord.  It is about what happens when you blatantly choose death instead of choosing life.

Yet, hidden underneath the curses and consequences, hidden underneath the stormy rage of the Lord (that “evening breeze” that blows in the garden in our English Bibles is not actually a nice “evening breeze,” in reality, it is a storm), under that raging storm we find forgiveness.  How so?

What was the punishment that God promised if the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was eaten?  Here are God’s exact words: “For in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”  On that very same day that the fruit was eaten, the man and the woman were to die.

Now, you tell me, what did not happen on that very same day?  You guessed it, the man and the woman did not die.  Sure, they will be removed from the garden, removed from the tree of life of which they could continually eat, but God does not strike them dead that very day.  Like any parent who has compassion on their wayward and faulty children, God does not kill his children that very day, like God promised.

I guess that you could say that God is the first over promising and under-delivering parent.  How many times as a parent has this happened?  “If you do that one more time, I am going to throw away all of your toys!”  Guess what?  Most of the toys are still there the next day.  Sure, two or three will be gone…there will be a consequence…but the parent has shown the child something that we like to call “mercy.”  And, God shows the man and the woman mercy, not letting them get away with no consequences, but God forgives them out of a parental sort of love.

And, that is where it all starts.  All the way at the beginning of creation’s story we see that God’s story, our story, is actually a story about forgiveness.  It is a story about working though the consequences and moving forward in life with a second chance…and a third chance…and a two hundred and seventy fourth chance.  It is all about forgiveness.

When Jesus is asked how many times we need to forgive, Jesus answers, “Seventy times seven times.”  Now, that does not mean we keep track up to 490 times.  Rather, it means that our lives are forever built on mercy and forgiveness; the same forgiveness that Jesus gives as a gift to the world on the cross.  But, we will talk about that later.  Just know tonight that the foundation of all creation was built on forgiveness.  It is upon forgiveness that we stand, and walk, and live, and breathe.  We breathe forgiveness, just like God.

Reflection on Matthew 4:1-11

 

It was a terrible choice to make.  The whole family was hungry.  It had been days since they had had even a slice of bread.  The father of the family was approached by a rich man from the edge of the village who offered a year of food in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage.  The girl still had growing to do.  The girl was in no way ready for marriage, and the father did not know if he could trust the man.  He was not exactly known as good and honorable.  What if something happened to his daughter?  But, if they did not get any food, she would be dead soon anyway.  Like I said, it was a terrible choice to make, made even harder by a starving body and mind.  I cannot even fathom having to make that sort of decision.  Hunger can tempt us in ways that other things cannot. 

Was in not eating a very nice piece of fruit that led to the downfall of Adam and Eve?  Adam and Eve failed to trust God’s wisdom.  They failed the test.  Was it not the lack of food in the wilderness that caused the Israelites to rebel against God and desire slavery in Egypt once again where they could find food?  The Israelites failed to trust God.  They failed the test. 

You might be wondering what the man decided?  He chose to give away his daughter in marriage.  I do know that his family was fed, but I am sorry to say that I do not know how it all worked out for his daughter.  I was never told that part of the story.  

Was his decision a failure of an eternal test?  Was he just in a bad situation with no good solution?  I actually do not know the answer these questions.  Hunger has a tendency to drive us to do things that we normally would not.  What I do know is that the man said that he felt like he failed to trust God.  He tried to fix things himself. 

The man went to church ever morning, guilt clinging to the shoulders where his daughter should have been carried.  At the church, he knelt in front of the carved wooden crucifix, the carved eyes of Jesus looking at him, and he asked for forgiveness from the one who did not fail the hunger test; Jesus, the one who forgives.

When driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tested by the devil, Jesus, like his ancestors Adam and Eve and all the freed Israelite slaves, was also given a test with food.  Jesus was weak, after-all.  Jesus was famished after eating nothing for forty days and forty nights. 

Coming near the weak and famished Jesus, “The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’”  Notice that the tempter did not give Jesus some bread; rather he suggested that Jesus create bread for himself.  “Fix yourself.  Trust in yourself.  Have faith in yourself,” the tempter enticed.

It is the test that Adam and Eve failed.  They wanted wisdom for themselves.  They wanted to decide things for themselves.  So they ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.  They did not trust that God had their back.  Adam and Eve wanted to be in control.  In the same way, Jesus is tempted with anxiety.  Jesus is tempted with self-reliance.  Jesus fought back with scripture.  “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

This answer is so cool.  Do you realize just how cool this answer is?  Jesus admits that we do need bread to survive (“We do not only live on bread”), but more than bread, we need something that reaches all the way back to the beginning of all creation.  In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, God’s “Spirit,” God’s “wind,” God’s “breath,” or as the Gospel of John puts it, God’s “Word” created life out of the chaos waters.  God’s very breath hovered over the waters and created everything.  God’s very words spoke everything into existence.  God’s breath filled the dust and created a person.  God’s breath and words are what fill us with life.  Without that Word, that breath, we would not even have wheat to make any bread. 

In other words, Jesus is saying, “Bread is good, but God is even better.  I will trust in God.”  “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”  And, Jesus does.  Jesus trusts that God will provide, even when things have gotten desperate.

Moments later, Jesus is tempted again by the devil.  The devil places Jesus on the very peak of the temple; the temple in Jerusalem, the place where heaven and earth touch; the temple where God resides.  The devil tells Jesus to jump off; after-all God will not let anything happen to him.  God is right there, just through the curtain.  Surely, God will send angels to catch him. 

The devil is proposing a test; not of Jesus, but of God the Father.  Will God truly provide?  Will God truly care?  Is God even there?

I have tested God.  I have set up challenges by which God can prove that God is there and that God cares.  I have stared at the stars, waiting for the shooting star to come, only to see none.  I have prayed to hear a voice in the night, only to hear silence.  I have tested God, and I think that most of you have also.  Here is the thing.  God will do what is right and good; not what I want God to do.  God does not jump to it if a little boy wants a meteorite to fall from the sky.  God does not snap to it a bored boy wants the rain to dry up.  And, God will certainly not be tested when we are the ones being tested. 

Faith means trusting that God will provide, and trusting is done without proof. 

When a parent says to the teen, I trust that you will not drink tonight when you go out with your friends; they send the teen out not knowing the results.  They send them out without any proof.  They trust that the teen will do the right thing.  In the same way, Jesus trusts God the Father without prior proof.  With scripture on his lips he declares, “It is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

Do you see a theme with scripture going on here?  Do you see how God’s word is guiding Jesus’ every decision, especially when he is weak and famished?  I am not certain, but there seems to be something to that.

The last test is one that Israel failed again and again throughout the scriptures as they inhabited a land of their own.  They were given the gift of land from God and they immediately and continually thanked and worshiped other gods.  They would go up to high places and worship other gods.  They would appease the culture and allow other idols of other gods to reside in these high places, so as not to cause a fracture in the culture.  Over and over other gods were worshiped and put on high places.

And, it is not different today.  We too put people and things on high places.  We too lift up people and things and allow them to have a say in our lives.  We too worship other gods; we just do not call them that.  We call them celebrities.  We call them influencers.  We call them political analysts.  We call them our beloved.  We call it money.  We call it power.  We call it our truth.  We look up to them and they dictate our lives.

On a high place, Jesus is drawn to look at all the land that he can see and he is tempted by the devil, “Worship me and you can have it all.”  This seems so easy.  Just say “no.”  But, in real life it is not easy.  A single mother struggling to get by once said to me, “I feel like money is my God.  I don’t want money to direct my whole life, but when I have to struggle so much every day and work hours and hours to get enough, how can it not?”  Sometimes, it is hard to not worship the very things that we despise.  “I hope that Jesus forgives me,” she said, knowing that she cannot change a thing.  Hopefully, Jesus can overcome what we cannot.  Hopefully, Jesus understands.  Hopefully, Jesus can make a difference.

Jesus said to the devil, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”  Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on [Jesus].

The Bible says, “Suddenly angels came and waited on [Jesus].”  You see?  God did not forget.  God did not forget Jesus.  God did not forget his needs.  God did not forget to love.  God did not forget.  “Suddenly angels came and waited on [Jesus].” 

I gawk in awe at the power of Jesus and I ask, “Where do I find myself in all of this?”  I find myself with that father, begging for forgiveness.  I find myself asking Jesus to forgive my inability to trust.  I find myself in awe of Jesus’ ability to trust God the father, even when things were rough and the road clearly led to death on a cross.  Like that father, I find myself just staring at Jesus, hoping that he gives me even an ounce of that trust.  And, maybe that is a good place to start.  Maybe, staring at Jesus, hoping that he can provide, is the start of something that we call trust and the church calls faith. 

Maybe, I will spend my Lent staring at Jesus, trusting in his power and his love. 

And, maybe I will give a hungry person some food, so that they do not have to try trusting God on an empty stomach.  After-all, we do not live on bread alone.